Proscenium Design is Your Desire

Porch, turkeys, garden, a new trinity.  This is my job, below.  Do you see what I've done?  

Designed the garden as a proscenium to life.  

What does that mean?

.

Garden is fabulous, marvelous, incredible 24/7 with little effort and a stage set for what life tosses.

.

Look at the top pic again.

.

It's taken from inside the house.  A snapshot that looks like a photo shoot.

.

Not an accident.

.

This garden is ready for Garden & Gun.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Pics sent from client last week.  She KNEW the turkey pic would THRILL me !!!!!!  Don't know Garden & Gun magazine?  You want to.

What is the narrative of your garden?

Cute kills.

Whimsey is for the intellect.
.
Pure narrative.  Got any in your garden?  These cats, this narrative, melts me.
.
Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
.
Pic Deborah Silver, Dirt Simple.  She designs & owns a nursery.  Take the link, enjoy her shop.  Are there even 10 such shops in USA?
.
This pair of cats are also, subsidiary focal points.  Name it to claim it.  I've had to name a lot of things in this garden design world.

Don't Overlook the Mundane

In the garden & inside you must have cloches.

Seeing, above, I knew my predilection for the unusual inside-a-cloche completely ignored the mundane.
.
A good day includes at least 1 epiphany.
.
Garden & Be Well,        XO Tara
.
pic Paris Through My Lens    
.
If you want a garden that is a moat of grace around your home & life, contact me.
.
Details about online design services.
.
Learn action steps to creating your best garden & home when you hire me to speak to your group.
.
Details about lecture titles here.
.
I've written several garden books available on Amazon.

Just Let It Touch

Subsidiary focal points should 'just touch' some foliage.

 It ties the subsidiary focal point to the garden.

 Instead of the subsidiary focal point looking like it landed from Mars.

Was happy to see, above pics, this well sited peacock.
.
When I was shooting the pics the owner said, "Touch his head, it moves."
.
Yes, this is a bobblehead Peacock.

Garden & Be Well,       XO Tara

Small Lives Large With Axis + Focal Point

On axis with the doors, below, this tiny space lives large.  It has the potential for 3 more potent axis.

Purring at the formal lines + rusticity of plantings.
.
At first I looked too quickly, thinking it was metal chairs.  No.  It's a bike & chair. 
.
Don't you want to go inside? 
.
That is Vanishing Threshold!
.
Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
.
Don't forget the Landscape Design rule: COPY
.
Pics via Modern Country, taken by Shootfactory

Kitchen Lighting

Leaving at dusk last month I could see, from beyond the Ancient Orhcard, these lights, below, on.

 Retro fitted lighting ca. 1880.  The light bulbs mimic gas.

I'm a Landscape Designer & demand every view into your home be fabulous.
.
Lighting, window treatments, furniture, art & etc.
.
If I can see it from the garden it is within my domain.
.
Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
.
Pic taken at a jobsite last month.  The primitive piece next to the marble island is called a biscuit board.  Never seen one till here.  Wish I had the type of camera to have shot from the garden, past the Ancient Orchard, across the Lawn & into her windows.  Susanne Hudson is helping with interiors.

Hammock Humor

Perusing last night, above.  Laughter, amusement, delighted arrogance Puppet Barbuda style.  In reality the hammocks I see are hanging from rusted metal frames, in landscapes devoid of charm, a bare patch of earth below with weeds spreading from the muck, no fringe, a mildew factory, on view from windows inside the home, with not a table in sight for a book & glass of wine, and every mosquito from miles around just waiting for you to alight to gorge on your blood and give you the disease of the day.
.
Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
.
Pic from Janelle McCulloch, & thank you for picturing the answer, "What were they thinking?"

How To Edit Design

Focal Points: use 1 per area.

 Too much stuff?  Site subsidiary focal points away from main focal point.  Focal points & subsidiary focal points should 'Just Touch' foliage.

 Obelisk and ornamental grasses great combo.  A subsidiary focal point becoming a focal point when the grasses are herbacious.

Adore the siting of Mary's ball.  You'll not see it if you're walking and looking in another direction.
.
Garden & Be Well,        XO Tara
.
Editing is one of the hardest things to do in a Landscape Design.  Mary is the queen of editing.  Her work puts her into contact with lots of FREE good garden 'stuff'.  Yes, same fabulous Mary as previous posts.

Landscape Design: Subsidiary Focal Points

At woodland's edge, below, a tiny vegetable garden.  Perfect siting for her red leaf Japanese maple.

 Too pretty, rusted urn, to not use, below, but the garden already has a main focal point here, the roundabout (yesterday's pics), it's discreetly tucked into a 'shrub clump'.  A subsidiary focal point.

 Leaving yesterday's roundabout, below, a path.  Peaking thru the garden, above, notice her USA flag.

With its curve this path has my interest.  Eyes, mind & feet are pulled.
.
Yes, I'm going to walk you thru more of Mary's garden next post.
.
Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
.
Adore the concept, SHRUB CLUMP.  Of course it's from Gertrude Jekyll.  It's difficult to read her in bed at night.  She's always exciting.  Graham Stuart Thomas, same thing.
.
Mary didn't know I was coming to her garden, she is at the beach with grandchildren.  Nothing is styled, and why historical landscape design concepts keep working.  Note arrived from Mary yesterday, she's 71.  Important for you to know this.  She is the gardener.

Most People Are Afraid Of This.

Carl Jung, "Our lives are about getting the outside to match the inside."Tucked in a woodland, on a mossy stone, unseen by most.
Are you brave enough to put what resonates in your heart into your garden?

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Same garden as the previous posts.

.

It's odd, I design landscapes but often feel like I liberate adults into their imagination.

How To Create Hidden Assets

The rule is 1 focal point per area. How to break the rule? Subsidiary Focal Points.
.
In the Tea Olive Terrace, above.
.
Tucked quietly in a corner, often overlooked.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Pic taken last week in my garden. A perverse delight, creating subsidiary focal points to be overlooked.

Something To Make You Smile

Last year when I designed her landscape her kitchen was sheet rock. Last week, below, still unfinished it's already fabulous. Sheepishly, she said, "I know it's ridiculous but it makes me happy to look at my new chandeliers."

A wise observation. Over a decade ago, in Penny McHenry's garden, I realized the same thing about things that made me smile. Her garden, tastefully, had many.

Near my front door, above, the cat. I bought the cat for no other reason than it made me smile.

Go ahead, give yourself permission. Choose things that make you smile.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Squire Mushroom vs Wine Bottle Girl

"James Gillray's etching 'Delicious Weather', 1808, mocks the middle-class villa owner, satirized elsewhere as the newly rich 'Squire Mushroom', for his attempts to make an elegant landscape in a 2-acre garden." J Fearnley-Whittingstall
Who caters to the man, above? TESTOSTERONE ON WHEELS MOW-BLOW-GO & COMMODIFY EVERYTHING I TOUCH IN YOUR LANDSCAPE PHILOSOPHY.

.

Poppets, PUPPET BARBUDA, has been buying clothes, before reading/seeing the above, she declared her style: French, early 19th century, white wig, leggings, & dare I say, a bit of modest cleavage.
From the Dining Room, above. Seen only when standing near, not while seated. Solution? A floral arrangement of wine bottles & accouterments, softly lit from below. A cornucopia to Wine Bottle Girl's theme.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

How could I resist mixing these topics? The difference between 'Squire Mushroom' & 'Wine Bottle Girl' ? Wine Bottle Girl lives Cole Porter's, "It must be FUN". Poppets, she has zero time-energy-will to impress. PUPPET BARBUDA finds Squire Mushroom & his minions tiresome, to the point of harmful, to her beloved industry.

.

Top pic & quote taken from, THE GARDEN An English Love Affair One Thousand Years of Gardening, by Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall.

Subsidary Focal Point

In most landscapes she, below, would be a focal point on axis with a main view. In this Italianate garden she's a subsidiary focal point. A surprise, lovingly tucked in.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Remember, the landscape design rule: 1 Focal Point/area.
.
Pic taken in Athens, Ga this month in the same garden as previous post.

Surprises Tucked In

Adirondack chairs as focal points. Easy. Unless, perhaps, you've put too much junk in your garden?

Oakleaf Hydrangea blossom stealing the spotlight.

Tucked in, above, I adore old watering cans.

.

A little surprise, tucked in, seen when you sit in my adirondack chair. Placement matters, poppets. Sometimes 2" matters.

.

Don't create the gravest of garden cliches; all your baubles fighting to be seen AT ONCE. Ugh.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Pic taken this month in my garden. Again, you realize I do not like styled pics? When a design is good no need to style your pictures. Bottom pic: shot pea gravel, gray Cherokee flagstone edging & oakleaf hydrangea spilling over. Aaaaaah, love it. Calms me. Ha, whatever works, right?

.

cliche: trite, hackneyed, desperate...............

Repetition

Puppet Barbuda took awhile to trust repetition, a landscape design tool. Wasted years. Puppet Barbuda was stubborn. Still is.

Puppet Barbuda was too smart to COPY !!!!!

.

Alas, years in the wilderness, and Puppet Barbuda DID NOT recreate a new wheel.

.

REPETITION, if it works in one landscape it will work in your landscape. Each time repetition repeats....................IT'S NEW & UNIQUE at each repeat.

.

Of course poppets you must adjust for plant zone, money, maintenance, & time. Ironically, copying $$$ landscapes rewards you, often, with better results than the original.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Pics from Susanne Hudson's garden last month.

An Exception

Landscape Design Rule: 1 Focal Point per Area Faux bois bench.
.
Oversized hanging candle lantern.
.
Blooming Hydrangea in a pot.
.
Gravel path.
.
Breaking Landscape Design Rules creates fabulous landscapes.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Pic taken almost 2 weeks ago in Susanne Hudson's garden. I spent 5 nites with her while creating our garden for the annual Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival. Oh yes, dahlings, will be posting those pics soon.
.
I've taken dozens of pics of this gorgeous faux bois bench. Each awful. Finally. Ah, finally. Got it !!
.
Yes, broken landscape design rule, above, but don't overlook the fabulous landscape design: canopy trees, understory trees, walls of shrubs, color theme, sense of mystery, sense of surprise.

Brown Choices

Brown, below, is a landscape design choice. Is it on your radar?

Leaf Litter Mulch is a choice.

Leaf Litter Mulch? Love it.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Preparing my garden for a tour, 4 years ago, I realized the standard set by local garden designers (Ryan Gainey & etc.), which I was happily copying, wasn't for me, anymore. Instead I went 180 degrees to my Mentors, all women. Each with Leaf Litter Mulch. A choice made in the afternoon. By dark, sooooooooooo tired, still working in my garden, I glanced up to see my garden and began to cry. Why? It was the missing element, Leaf Litter Mulch, I had the garden I had always wanted.

.

Pics from Susanne Hudson's garden last week.

Subsidiary Focal Point

Perfectly placed, Donkey, below, is nibbling

the ivy.

I asked Susanne if she placed Donkey at the ivy tendril. She had no clue what I meant.

.

A cute donkey cart? My famous words about Cute Kills? Well, dahlings, there is an exception to every rule.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Pic taken in Susanne Hudson's garden last week.

Accidental Seasons

Like? Me too. Pulled from the basement, below, my grandmother's wheel barrow. No time, yet, to fill it with terra cotta pots & 'style' its placement.

Today, above, with hydrangeas. In spring, below, with Chinese snowball.

Chinese snowball petals swirling, below, onto unfurling hydrangea foliage.

In the snow, below.

When sasanqua's bloom in fall another wheelbarrow pic. Had no idea it would become a seasonal attraction. Still pondering where I'll place it once it's filled with terra cotta pots. I adore this type of pondering. Priceless.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Susanne Hudson created the top wheelbarrow.